Martinsburg gazette. (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1886-1887, 1887-02-11
POPULAR SCIENCE.

The brain OF lioness hal been dis
.sected at Borne, and found to be in
many respects intermediate between the
dogs and the cats brain.
The air Of different places seems to
vary little III its proportion Of oxygen
and nitrogen; air lately brought from
Cape Horn being about like that Of
France.
al Mason City, Iowa, man has invented
"a high-speed compound engine composed
of only seven parts, which is the marvel
of machinists. Every part runs in oil.
There IS nothing of it like the common
engine; no valves, port-holes, eccentric,
cross head, packing boxes, or dead CEN
ter. It will make 1000 revolutions in a
minute.
Probably no application Of science is
developing more rapidly than photog-
raphy. Among recent appliances is .
detective camera in the form OF watch,
with charm to hold q supply of minia-
ture dry-plates; and q telescope camera
In which distant Of. .ccts are brought
near by telescope aid and photo
graphed.
Tt is often observed that iron of recent
make rusts and wears away much moro
rapidly than samples made forty or fifty
years ago. The more rapid deterioration
81 much Of the iron Of late make arises
from the fact that it contains more i'm
purities than formerly. The common
iron of to-day is filled with Stag, and
looks coarse and fibrous when rlsted or
worn. Fifty years az the iron made in
the Unit d States was largely charcoal
J. iron, and was much purer and better than
the same grades made at thep: cnt day.
"A member Of the London Astronomi-
cal Society has pointed out that the COM
mon assumption that fragment Of
meteor dust no larger than mustard
@seed may give the brilliancy Of first
magnitude star is erroneous. TO give
that brightness at distance Of 100
miles about that at which meteors are
usually seen-would require an electric
lamp of 10000 candle power. It is there
fore probable that the smallest visible
meteors have surface equal to the In
candescent portion Of 10O-candle
power electric arc, if not much greater.
According to DR.. Brown Sequari, one
has only to harden the neck and feet
and destroy their sensitivcness to pre-
vent taking cold. This is done by daily
blowing stream of cool air, by means
sof AN elastic bag, upon the neck, and by
immersing the feet IN cool water. The
air is at first only slightly cool. but IS
each day made colder, until the neck
can stand an Arctic blast with impunity.
The feet are immersed In water, which
is at first at q temperature of about ninety
degrees Fahrenheit, and this Is gradu-
ally reduced to thirty eight degrees Fab
renheit.
1t is well known that when q deep
hole is made in the ground, the deeper
it is run the greater the heat is at the
bottom. In mine ), 900 feet in depth
it has been asccrtained that the increase
in heat was one degree Fahrenheit in
fifty-five feet This makes fifty four de-
grces for 3, 800 feet. If the same pro-
gression continued thus for 800, coo feet,
the temperature would attain 5, 400 de-
grecs. Investigation and study lead to-
the belief that matter in state of fusion
would begin at the depth of 10000
feet, were not the pressure so great as
to prevent actual melting This leads to
the conclusion that the whole earth is
internally in highly heated state, and
that the comparatively cool crust upon
which wedwell is in proportion much
less than the thickness of an orange
skin relatively to an orange.
An experienced Arctic hunter says:
The largest white bear I ever saw was
shot in November, 1855. His measure
$manta were twelve feet two inches from